MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES
No. 30 – September 2012
2012
The Fête de la gastronomie: a rallying call for fine food
The second Fête de la gastronomie, on 22
September, is on a larger scale than its predecessor and
will celebrate fine food not only throughout France but
abroad as well. From bistros to prestigious restaurants
and sandwiches to aperitifs, the festival is a popular event
designed to promote the values of tradition and
innovation inherent in a theme with universal appeal.
The first Fête de la gastronomie was held last year,
with the aim of creating a national event that would bring in
the general public, along the same lines as the Fête de la
musique music festival. The event proved to be an immediate
success and as a result is being run for a second time this
year.
“There’s a cultural as well as an economic aspect to it,” explains Sophie Mise, the event’s main
organiser. “It involves a wide variety of sectors, including agriculture, fishing, food processing,
catering, jobs in the food industry, the art of entertaining, and much more.” It is hardly surprising that
the original idea for the day, which brings together both amateurs and professionals, came from the
French Ministry of Commerce, Skilled Trades, SMEs, Tourism, Services, the Professions and
Consumer Affairs.
This year’s theme – Terroirs: creation and tradition, chosen by 45,000 internet users – will
provide an opportunity to celebrate the skills and capacity for innovation of French gastronomy. It will
be a chance to pay tribute to some often long-established forms of know-how whilst demonstrating the
vitality of a sector that is constantly changing, creating and experimenting and which has its own
trends, fashions and new techniques. The 2012 Festival is sponsored by leading chef Michel Guérard,
who epitomises both tradition (he has had three Michelin stars since 1977!) and vitality: he is currently
in the process of setting up a school for healthy cooking.
Michel Guérard has put forward the idea of an amateur recipe competition, the final of which
will take place in the Landes area of south-west France. Promoting agricultural produce is essential for
areas where agriculture and food-processing are the main sector in the economy, with the Landes
region being a prime example. But all regions will be promoting their specialities through tastings,
product demonstrations, visits to key sites, special menus and cookery classes in restaurants, plus a
soup event organised by the French markets federation, Les Marchés de France, similar to last year’s
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but on a larger scale. A significant increase on the 6,000 events held in 2011 is expected this year.
Projects vary in size and some are even intended to extend beyond the day itself.
In Paris, a restaurant-bus will be travelling through the streets of the capital with several
leading chefs on board. Towns and cities outside the capital are also staging a huge number of events.
Tours is organising an enormous market on the water for the whole week and Cassis will be hosting a
wine festival, whilst Marseille and its restaurateurs will be staging the Gourméditerranée event. In
Lille, participants will be invited to bring chefs some ingredients of their choice and then everyone
will cook together and eat there or at home. Rennes will be hosting a gourmet week whilst Boulogne
will be focusing on sustainable fishing and 800 people are expected to take part in a people’s banquet
on the square in front of the Popes’ Palace in Avignon. The general public is also invited to organise
meals at home, picnics in the parks and tea parties in the street. The Festival will be making its mark in
canteens, hospitals and retirement homes. Exhibitions, readings, symposia, art installations and a
Facebook page for festival enthusiasts will complete the programme.
The agency Atout France has been tasked with attracting foreign journalists to the event, even
though it has in fact already achieved a degree of international resonance: French and Francophile
restaurateurs (France is still the country where chefs come to train) have spontaneously organised their
own events, such as the Martinique in Montreal project. Tokyo is looking forward to a repeat of the
picnic organised last year by the Alliance Française and the Jeune Chambre Economique (Junior
Chamber of Commerce). New York will have a special ‘eating out’ week and a temporary space –
which may in time become a permanent one – staffed by chefs and telling the story of gastronomy and
the art of French living, is currently under construction. Expatriate French families will be taking part
by offering baskets of products, amongst other things. Everyone is responding to the Festival in their
own way, both in France and abroad!
The Fête de la gastronomie is designed to be a rallying call for fine food across the board. The
starting point is, of course, the food itself, but there is also an emphasis on people and techniques,
which includes employment, training, handing down from one generation to the next, identity and
promoting the skills of people all the way down the line, from celebrity chefs to more modest
occupations. Finally, the day will provide an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of gastronomy,
following on from the inclusion of the Gastronomic Meal of the French in the UNESCO list of
Intangible Heritage, as Sophie Mise explains: “It is about valuing the sense of smell, touch and other
feelings and reflecting on the reasons for spending time at the table in a convivial atmosphere, as an
opportunity to take care of ourselves and other people, while enjoying a simple or more elaborate
meal.” At the heart of the festival, of course, lie the values of coming together and sharing, without
which gastronomy would not enjoy such passionate enthusiasm.
Sylvie Thomas
To submit a project,
take part in the amateur recipe competition
or find out more about the events taking place, visit
www.fete-gastronomie.fr
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